Proposed Changes by SSA

Social Security Plans to Change Rules for people over 50 and Looks to Change Disability Process

March 2, 2006

Updating rules for disability would save money, but critics say changes would hurt eligible recipients.

In recent months, the Social Security Administration has proposed revisions to two sets of rules governing who qualifies for disability, revisions it claims are designed to streamline and update cumbersome and outdated regulations.

Advocates for the disabled argue that the pending changes will have the effect of denying funds to thousands of people with severe mental and physical handicaps. It looks to many advocates that these changes are a thinly veiled attempt to save the administration money. SSA provides $79 billion a year in monthly payments to 8.3 million disabled workers and dependents.

It is important to note that the changes do not require congressional approval.

One set of proposed new rules would save Social Security an estimated $6 billion over the next decade by raising the ages at which applicants for disability are subjected to less stringent eligibility criteria. An age-based system has been in place since 1978, on the theory that it is harder for older people to find a job than for younger workers after a devastating accident or illness.

The other changes would theoretically improve the slow, cumbersome, multistep process by which applications for disability status have been resolved. Among disability advocates, these prospective changes have generated considerable opposition.

Proposed changes in the existing set of age-related rules used to determine disability

Here's an example of how they work - under current regulations. If you are over 50, have done physical work for years, and suffer a severe impairment that leaves you unable to do such work, you are presumed qualified for benefits, even though you might still be physically able to do desk work.

Under the proposed changes, this would apply to people 52 and older; similar upward adjustments of two years would be made in other categories.

In advocating the age shifts, the Social Security Administration cited "our adjudicative experience, advances in medical treatment, changes in the workforce... and current and future increases in the full retirement age."

Opponents, including this firm, argue that nothing has changed about the toll taken by physically demanding labor and that those most affected would be African Americans, the less educated, and people with lower incomes. Cuts in disability benefits should not fall disproportionately on the shoulders of middle-aged workers who once were able to work with their hands, but have been significantly limited by the age and illness.
 

Changes to the way Social Security Processes Claims

To speed things up, SSA  has proposed a "quick determination process" for the obviously disabled; the elimination of the Appeals Council, to be replaced by a board that would pick its own cases to review; and the imposition of hard deadlines for submission of evidence and rules against reopening cases.

The new deadlines have generated the most criticism, with advocates noting that it can be difficult for the disabled to obtain medical records and that the severity of an impairment often worsens as time goes on.

These changes have opponents in Congress as well. In a letter to SSA, Rep. Thomas H. Allen (D., Maine) wrote that adding "artificial time limits and other technical barriers" to the process "would be unfair and unjustified." Rep. Jim McCrery (R., La.), who chairs the House subcommittee on Social Security, has expressed similar views.

SSA said the final version of the rules would be published in coming weeks. The new rules initially would be imposed only on one region of the country, so officials can see how they worked.

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